My Partner's Keeper
by DragonArtist93
Summary: One-shot. Ryo is charged with watching Yami Bakura to make sure he doesn't do anything too bad. This time, Ryo's too exhausted to care. Set after cannon. Rated T. Also, werewolves involved (not much, just thought I'd warn you all)


**A/N:** This idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave. There's no pairings in this one (sorry, I'm sure you can find them somewhere else, it's not like they aren't EVERYWHERE Lol). I've also dropped some humor and fluff(ish) in this to try and make it more palatable. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** No, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, if I did, Atem would have found a way to stay with his friends and gen 2 would have never happened.

Ryo slipped his shirt back on, groaning when it stretched angrily. He'd grown so much in the past few months that he had to borrow Yami Bakura's clothes. Now it seemed that he would need to get even larger clothes.

"See you tomorrow Ryo!" Joey shouted out while putting his shirt back on. Tristan was standing behind him, hopping up and down in a futile attempt to get his pants back on without falling over.

Ryo waved them all goodbye and started walking towards his own home.

A few months after Yami Bakura's final Shadow Game, Joey, Atem and Tristan (in that order) discovered that they were werewolves. Then Seto shifted, much to his disdain, then Tea. Finally, three months ago, Ryo changed. Of course, he was the only all-white wolf in the pack. Although, Joey was all-blonde and that did get a few good jokes out of Kaiba, until he was reminded of his own furry problem.

Atem, being the Alpha (naturally), wanted to have some friendly brawls between each other to help them be better prepared for a fight. Being the youngest and smallest wolf, Ryo ended up being covered in cuts and bruises. His ego was also a little sore, but he was still growing.

"I'm home!" He called out to Yami, rubbing his sore arm. He was truly exhausted and not entirely sure he could handle Yami today.

After his deadly Shadow Game he had been given a second chance at life. The others did not agree with the Item's decision and believed that Bakura should rot in the Shadow Realm for what he did. Ryo however, kept faith.

Yami didn't get off totally free though, Atem cracked his jaw as soon as they both woke up in their own bodies. Yugi had to hold on to Atem to stop him from punching Yami again. Ryo didn't get it much easier; he was commissioned as Yami's Keeper, meaning that he was completely responsible for the Ex Thief King, something that proved to be even harder now that Yami had his own body.

"Gah!" Ryo yelled as soon as he entered the living room. "What did you do!?" Yami's head flicked around to face Ryo. His pale face was covered in a light sweat.

"That's none of your business." He sneered. Yami's hands were covered in blood with small glass shards in his lap. He must have removed them from his gashed right hand. There was also blood everywhere and nearly everything was broken.

"Come on, you need to go to the hospital." Ryo grabbed both of their coats tiredly. _'I leave him alone for two hours and he beats up the house… I doubt he even has a good reason for it.'_

"I'm not going." He declared, standing up and facing Ryo. His face became even paler but Ryo was too enraged to notice.

"Fine, you know what? Bleed to death, see if I care!" Ryo screamed, hot anger overwhelming him suddenly. He slammed the door and ran back to Yugi's house, trying desperately to keep his inner wolf inside.

"Oh hey Ryo, I thought Atem said you weren't going to be here for dinner. Ah well, that doesn't matter, we have more than enough food." Yugi shrunk back slightly when he saw the sheer fury on Ryo's usually gentle face.

"Sure, I'd love to. I just needed to get out of my house for the night." He smiled lightly and took deep breaths to calm himself down. "Sorry to scare you Yugi." He smiled sheepishly while Yugi waved it off, smiling.

They both walked inside to find that most of the food had been consumed. At least Yugi thought they'd have enough…

"Yug! Don't worry; I made Money-bags order a bunch of pizza." Joey grinned, elbowing Kaiba in the ribs.

"Keep it up and you won't get any." Kaiba grinned as well, making Joey's smile turn into a playful sneer. They weren't friends yet, but they were allies; bickering, prank-pulling, name calling allies but who said the world was perfect.

"Should we be expecting Yami?" Tea asked, she was the only one that didn't mind having him over. Sure, he was grumpy all the time, but he was relatively harmless. Of course there was that one time with the scissors…

Ryo cringed from anger and worry.

"Is something wrong?" Atem's voice sounded from the doorway.

"The stubborn oaf will probably be dead in the morning." Ryo shook his head causing his stiff muscles to react painfully. He was still too irritated to let the words sink in.

"That doesn't sound like you at all Ryo." Yugi frowned. He shot a glare at Atem who was having a hard time keeping a grin off his face. Subtlety was not the former Pharaoh's strong point.

"I'm sore and tired only to come home to a trashed living room and Yami hurt. I lost my temper…" Ryo sighed; a single tear escaped his eyes. "There was a lot of blood…" His voice trailed off. And there was, he'd somehow managed to get it on the ceiling.

Atem forced a frown quickly when Ryo looked up. "He'll be okay." He did his best to sound caring. It was hard, with Yami involved and all.

"Perhaps I should go and check on him." Yugi grabbed Ryo's shoulder before he could leave.

"Give him some time." He gave Ryo a pleading look. Yugi knew it would be bad for Ryo to go home so soon after leaving Yami, and probably pissing him off.

Ryo sighed sadly.

He spent the whole night worrying over his stubborn Yami. Leave it to Bakura to bleed out from punching a T.V. After all, it was Ryo's job to take care of, and more importantly, watch his Yami and he failed. It was a long night.

The next morning Ryo ran to his house as fast as he could; his guilt burning a hole in his heart.

He slammed into the door before his brain told him to open it; then wrenching it free, he ran into the living room.

Not only was there no sign of Yami but the place was spotless and the T.V. was replaced. Sure it smelt like bleach and the stuff was probably stolen but it was still there.

"Yami!" Ryo yelled out. "Bakura?" He reserved his former Yami's name for special occasions and now he wanted nothing more than his friend's grumpy face scowling at him.

On the kitchen table he found a note that said:

_Dear Aibou, _

_I restored the living room to before my "accident." There are some store-bought, still sealed cookies under this letter. I'll be back later tonight, don't stay up for me._

_Bakura_

"Poison-free" was written on the top of the lid. While that might make anyone else suspicious, Ryo knew that it was only written to prove his innocence.

Ryo gripped the letter tightly, allowing the tears to stream down his face. Bakura never called him Aibou, probably because Bakura never thought of him as his partner. He opened the box to eat a single cookie, savoring the thought behind it.

A distinctive howl drifted from far off. Ryo couldn't ignore the call, although he was slightly irritated. _'Seriously Atem? I just got home.'_ He thought before shifting and ultimately sharing a mind with his friends.

_'Good everyone's here.'_ Atem's regal voice rang through their minds. Ryo could see through his eyes that he was sitting in a clearing, waiting almost patiently.

_'What's the occasion?'_ Joey asked, giving Ryo enough time to catch up to the pack. _'No problem buddy.'_ He grinned and stamped his paws, stopping just short of Kaiba.

_'There's been a vampire in the area.'_ He lifted up off his haunches. _'We're going to run him out or kill him. But only if we absolutely have too!' _ He swung his huge head towards Kaiba and bared his teeth slightly.

_'Yeah sure.' _He sneered back, a small growl escaping with it, then took off towards the vamp. _'Catch me if you can Blondie!'_

It took all day to find the vampire and most of the night to run it off. The pack spent the time trying to understand Ryo's sadness. He did his best to not think about it, he didn't want his friends to know about the letter.

Ryo checked his phone before opening the door. _'3am, sheesh I never used to come home this late.'_ He walked into his room to change only to be confronted with an awful set of smells and Bakura lying on his bed. His left arm was swung over the side and his clothes were skewed, probably from rolling around.

"Bakura, are you okay? Why do you smell so bad?" He had smelt worse once; the memory made him shudder. Then he saw the pipe and empty whiskey bottle on the floor. "Are you high?"

"And very drunk." He whispered, only just barely conscious, or alive for that matter.

Ryo checked his pulse to find that it was racing dangerously. He ran to the kitchen to get Bakura some much needed water.

"Why did you do this?" Ryo asked while supporting Bakura in a sitting position. His body weakly shook and his breathing was ragged.

"You wanted me dead." He took a sip of the water. "Although I wasn't planning on being here before I collapsed." His head slumped into Ryo's shoulder.

"I don't want you dead." Ryo defended quickly, helping Bakura lie back down on his side. "I was just tired and hurt." He placed Bakura's bandaged hand above his head, hoping it would help.

Bakura grunted before closing his eyes and sighing. Ryo gasped and checked his pulse again, but it hadn't changed.

Ryo sat there and watched his friend's fitful sleep, periodically checking to make sure he was still alive. He also reflected on why Bakura had done this, it was obvious that he intended to die. Although he did bandage his hand; was it only because Ryo told him to? Technically, Ryo told him to die.

"Oh no…" He started crying. Bakura never did what he wanted him too. In fact, it was the Thief's MO to do what Ryo didn't want him doing. What made yesterday different?

The answer made him hide his face in Bakura's side (something that would have ended horridly if he was still awake); all those other times Ryo would sigh and tell Bakura that he shouldn't be doing whatever it was that he did. Yesterday, he very much _didn't_ care what happened to Bakura. Ryo laid there the rest night, listening to his friend's breathing.

Bakura opened his eyes and instantly slammed them shut in pain. His head throbbed with each slow, precise beat of his heart. He slowly reopened them and saw the room was empty; spinning too.

He carefully brought himself to his feet and stumbled towards the kitchen.

"Good morning." Ryo spoke softly, much to his relief. He led Bakura to one of the dining tables two seats.

Bakura moaned and dropped his head in his hands. "Stupid heart." He grumbled. He tried so hard to stop its infernal beating. To no avail, it was more stubborn than him, even when it was loaded with enough alcohol to put an elephant down.

"You should be nice to it after the hell you put it through last night." Ryo set down an odd drink and some pretzels while Bakura grumbled something about that being the point. "It'll help with the hangover." He pushed it closer, ignoring his last comment.

"How do you know?" He grunted, lifting his head to sip the drink. If the splitting headache and nausea hadn't tripled in the process, he might have liked the drink.

"Because we all turned twenty-one once and Joey's very overconfident." Ryo chuckled at the memory. It was certainly happier than last night.

Bakura was in too much pain to laugh at the thought.

He nibbled on a pretzel while Ryo quietly got up to refill Bakura's drink. Bakura wanted so badly to crunch the pretzels like a man, but even that made the world turn a few shades green.

He stood up again, ignoring the sudden waves of nausea. "Why are you helping me?" He stopped just behind his former host. Not quite glaring at his back in confusion.

"Because," he turned around and pulled Bakura into a hug, gently of course. "You're my best friend."

"Aibou…" He whispered, closing his eyes.

Ryo smiled secretly (Bakura might have punched him otherwise), he trusted the Item's decision to let Yami Bakura live because he knew that deep down, he was one of the most loyal people Ryo knew.

FIN

Thank you for reading :) R&R


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